RECORD BREAKING UNDER DIFFICULTIES;

Motor-cycling is becoming exceedingly popular in Rhodesia, where, until a few years ago, mechanical transport was seldom seen, and the first Rhodesian records have now been recognised by the Motor-Cycle Union of South Africa. Record breaking attempts, however, are not carried out under the same favourable circumstances as they are in Great Britain.

One of the first batch of records was that acquired by G. W. Lowe, who attained a speed of 60 m.p.h. on a Francis-Barnett fitted with a 172 c.c. Villiers twostroke engine. Lowe, in the course of an interesting letter home, writes as follows :—” A speed of 6o m.p.h. may appear rather slow to you, but when it is realised that this speed was made on an ordinary gravel road at an altitude of 5,000 feet above sea level with a 13 stone rider, it puts rather a different complexion on the performance. I think that the altitude alone makes a reduction of 6 or 7 m.p.h. in maximum speed.”